Psychometric Properties of Four Commonly Used Suicide Risk Assessment Measures: Applicability to Military Treatment Settings

Abstract

Clinicians working in U.S. Department of Defense behavioral health settings rely on standardized suicide risk assessment measures to guide their treatment of service members. Most of the measures used were developed, normed, and validated for use with civilians. Although there is reason to believe such measures will perform similarly in civilian and military treatment settings, that assumption has rarely been confirmed empirically. The purpose of the current study was to examine data from a large assessment study to confirm the reliability and validity of 4 widely used suicide risk assessment measures for military personnel. The risk assessment measures were (a) Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale; (b) Self-Harm Behavior Questionnaire; (c) Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire—Revised; and (d) Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation. Items from the Military Suicide Research Consortium’s Common Data Elements were used to examine convergent validity. Data from 1,044 military service members at risk for suicide who completed baseline assessments were used in the current analyses. Small differences were found across the measures, but overall performance was acceptable and all are considered valid and reliable to use when assessing active duty U.S. military personnel.